An Entirely Too Brief Primer on Translating Blazonry
An article by Maxton Gunn
First published in "The Moonstone",
the official newsletter of the Province of Malagentia
December 31st, 2004

Le coeur a ses raisons


A coat of arms is a device or emblem represented on a shield. Blazonry is the precise and peculiar language used to describe a coat of arms, and a blazon is such a description. Here are some general rules to the structure of a blazon.

The first part of a blazon is a description of the field, or background, of the shield. This could be either a color, a pattern, or a description of the way in which the field is partitioned into areas of two different colors.

For reasons more applicable to the designing of a coat of arms than in the translation of blazonry, the colors used in heraldry are divided into three groups; metals, colors, and furs. The metals are gold and silver, called "or" and "argent", and represented in print by yellow and white. The colors are gules, azure, sable, vert, and purpure - the heraldic names for red, blue, black, green, and purple respectively. The principle furs are "ermine" (white with black ermine spots) and "vair" (shield shaped divisions of blue and white).

Shields can be partitioned in a great number of standard patterns such as; "per pale" (split up the middle), "per chevron" (a broad peak extending from the bottom), per fess (split top and bottom), per bend (split diagonally), per cross or quarterly (split in four, with each color occupying opposite quarters), etc. The lines which make the split are most often plain, but can be wavy, dovetailed, indented (zigzag), "engrailed", "embattled", etc.

Semee is the common pattern, meaning a field covered with a succession of small figures. Some semee patterns have special names, such as "goutty" for a semee of water drops, or "checky" for a semee of squares.

Got it so far? "Quarterly vert and sable" would be a shield split in four, with opposite quarters of green and black. "Per fess wavy argent and gules" would describe a shield separated top and bottom by a wavy line, silver on top and red below.

The next part of a blazon would be a description of any "charge" which might be present. A charge could be either one or more figures, or it could be an "ordinary". Ordinaries are basic geometric shapes, such as "pale" (a vertical band in the middle), "bend" (diagonal band), "fess" (a horizontal band), "chevron", "pike" (a peak), etc. When present, ordinaries are mentioned before any other charge. Just as with the shield itself, ordinaries may also be partitioned "per fess", "per pale", etc.

Any figure could show up as a charge, and books have been written to keep track of the ones in common usage, and how to describe them in detail. Their position on the shield is described in terms such as "in chief" (the upper third of the shield), "in base" (the lower third), or "in fess" (the middle third between chief and base), "in pale" (the middle between left and right), etc. The color of the charge would then follow, as in; "Vert, a pale wavy argent". The term "counterchanged" describes the use of the colors of the field in a contrasting manner. "Proper" describes a charge that is normal in form and color.

The "bordure" (border) is described last. The line of the border is described if it is not plain, followed by the color or pattern.

 

Maxton Gunn





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